Tour Guide Hamish

Hello, my name is Hamish and I work as a tour guide for Hello New Zealand.

I have been doing this job for almost two years now and I enjoy it very much.

I Drive around New Zealand, going to beautiful locations and staying in new places everynight, sometimes I feel like a rock star on tour. But this isn't what I enjoy most about the job.

What I enjoy the most is meeting new people and seeing their faces when they see something new or experience something for the first time. It is such a wonderful moment when their face breaks into a smile, and you can see their eyes shine. No matter how tired I feel or even if I am having a bad day, the moment when I see somebody having a new experience always makes me feel better.





I see my job not so much as a guide or a teacher. I can show people lots of things and tell them about it, but really I think my job is about offering people an experience, a moment they will never forget. My job is to create a memory for them that will last a life time. And I feel privileged to be in a position where I can give somebody a moment that they will always carry with them.

Last month I took a 3 day tour to Mt Cook and Lake Tekapo. We had a good mixture of students, some from Taiwan, some from Japan and some from Korea.There was alot of excitment in the van as we left Christchurch, but everyone was a little quiet after we drove into stormy and dark weather. As we approched Lake Tekapo there was a lot of snow on the ground. Sami and David from Taiwwan quietly mentioned to me that they had never experienced snow before. As soon as it was safe to pull over we did, and Sami and David got out of the van


The look on their faces was one of pure joy and they knelt down and picked up handfuls of snow.

Sami told me that it was one of the most beautiful things she had seen, but she was surprised by how cold it was!! Needless to say she took close to 100 photos in the five minutes we were parked there.


The next day was another treat and under a clear blue sky we drove to a snow covered Mt Cook. I have lived most of my life in New Zealand, and spent a great part of that in the outdoors in some of the most beautiful places in the world, but even I was taken aback by how beautiful Mt Cook national park looked under the snow. Everything glistened in the bright sunshine.


We did two very nice walks, but the cold feet were worth it for the spectacular photos we made.


As we stood at the look out point gazing at Mt Cook I asked David from Taiwan if he knew what a snowman was. He said he had seen them on TV, but never in real life.


I pointed out that this was his chance. He was quiet for a second then he realised what I meant. It took him a couple of minutes to build his first (small) snowman. He was so happy and pleased, for him it was the definite highlight of the trip, that moment he will never forget. And a moment I will never forget either .



Davids first snowman,heres the photo to prove it.....

Sneaking in before the storm

We had an awesome ski tour to Mt Hutt on Saturday. It was a nice day until about 3pm when the fog rolled in. Our group had a cool mix of people from Taiwan, Germany, China, Malaysia, Japan and last but not least Nikolai the Russian DJ.

On Saturday night a storm rolled in, so Sunday's ski trip was snowed off. Good news is that there's now nearly 1 metre of fresh snow over all the Canterbury ski fields! What a cracker ski season it is turning out to be.

Wind, gales and storms...

Weather maps aren't especially cool or sexy images. They make for a lousy conversation opener. Explaining to your mate about isobar projections or pressure gradients is a sure way for him to suddenly remember something more important he should be doing.

Yet for the tour guide we look with rapture at a glorious high pressure system lazily approaching the country. Such an image all but guarantees a tour of sun, no wind, no rain and lots of happy faces on our customers. On the other hand, a sinister western front, with isobars jammed up together in an ugly zigzag, like the scene above, can mean only one thing - wind strong enough to blow us off the skifield.

This image was produced this morning at 7.00am and is a classic example of a westerly front. Wind gusts to over 100kph are buffetting parts of the South Island. In conditions like this the Canterbury ski fields have no chance of opening, so all our weekeend ski tours were cancelled.

On the plus side, it's nice to have a Sunday off every now and then...

Tales from a tour guide

The job of a tour guide is a mix of amazement (am I really being paid for visiting these beautiful places?), panic (pray we arrive on time for the boat/plane/activity) and mostly pure fun at being with new people every week.

The funny stories pile up while out on tour. Every tour has a different atmosphere, which depends on the location, size of the group, who is in the group and so many other factors. This variety is what keeps us coming back for more.

On a long tour of 2 or more nights, the coolest thing is watching the group start out as strangers and gradually turn into a group of friends, joking with the guide and fellow passengers. It is common when we finish tours for tour members to be swapping emails, phone numbers and arranging post-tour parties.

Meanwhile, this weekend Hamish is guiding our Mount Cook tour. No doubt he'll come back with some stunning photos, as the weather forecast is great and the winter snow and lakes will be picture postcard perfect.

Look forward to his update on Monday...

Brett

First Ski of the season

Sunday was a very happy day for us here at Hello New Zealand, we had our first ski trip of the current season up to Mt Hutt. It was an early start for us all as we left Christchurch just a little after seven o'clock. We had twelve students from Seafield School of English, and another five students from CPIT. It was a varied mixture of students, we had Koreans, Taiwanese, Japanese, Thai and Saudi students. What an exciting bunch they were, and even early in the morning they were very chatty and enthusiastic.

First we drove south to a small town called Rakaia. Here we were able to stop for a break, and to change into our skiing clothes. Rakaia is also the name of the very big river that flows next to the town, in fact it is so wide that the bridge across it is two kilometers long!! It is also well known for Salmon fishig and we all had a lot of fun taking photos next to the big fish that is in the town.

It was a lot of fun, but the real excitement was about the day skiing ahead of us.

We drove up the access road to the ski field and there was a mixture of excitement and nervousness on the bus. Some people ahd never been skiing or snow boarding before, and some people had never seen snow. Everybody was very happy and smiling when we got off the bus at the skifield, and while the guides Brett and Hamish went to get the lift tickets and organize the lessons most people ran straight to the snow to see what it was like.

Soon we changed into out ski/snowboard boots and got our skis and snowboards. There was a lot of laughter and we all took many photos as we got ready.

Some people could already ski or snowboard well, and they went straight up the mountain while the rest of us went for our first lesson.

Now the real fun started, and we all were laughing very hard as we learned to ski. Some people fell over alot, but it was good fun, especially that great feeling you get the first time you ski down the slope without falling over. Unforgettable, it was a special experience. The lesson lasted two hours, then we went tot he cafe for a lunch and to swap stories about the morning. After lunch all of us went up the chairlift to the top of the mountain. The view was cloudly, but good. Then we all skied down, some were better than others. It was a little bit scary, but the most exciting part of the day. Some of us went really fast, and some of us took our time, we came down the hill safely and at the bottom there was a lot of high fives and stories to tell.

We all very tired and some of us had sore muscles as we got back on the bus. It was nice and warm on the bus and most of us fell sleep as we drove home. We got back to the bus exchange at 6.30pm and said good bye to Brett and Hamish. We all had a wonderful day and made many new friends. I cant wait until next weeknd so we can do it again. :)

An epic Queenstown adventure

Wow. Thats all I can say. Wow. What a weekend we have just had. We had a tour to Queenstown that was so much more than we expected. It was fantastic.

We started out on Friday. We left Christchurch at lunch time with students from Aspiring school, Pacific school, Kaplan, CPIT, CCEL and New Zealand language centre. It was a very good mix of people, people from Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Taiwan and France.

Everyone was very excited as we left Christchurch and the excitment increase as we arrived at a snow covered Tekapo. Lake Tekapo looked very beautiful surrounded by snow, and we made many photos at the little stone church on the edge of the lake. It was a little cold, but the sun was shining brightly, perfect for making photos.

Soon after Tekapo we came to Lake Pukaki, and a lot of fog. We couldn't see much out the windows, the fog was so thick it was like driving in a cloud. The sun was setting and we were all getting a little hungry so we stopped in Omarama for a good hot meal. Mmmmm, much better.

The fog cleared just outside Omarama and we drove up through the Lindis pass. It was dark at night but we could see that the hills were covered in snow. It was cold, but the bus heater worked well keeping us all warm. Some of the Japanese girls were worried about the sheep out in the snow, but its OK, the sheep have thick wool to keep them warm.

We arrived in Queenstown at nine o'clock and went to our accomadation. We had a private block all to ourselves with nice warm rooms and a lounge with a TV and DVD player. It was really nice and we all felt like a family.

The next day we started off to visit Milford sound. The weather was clear and we took a lot of photos of scenery as we went. We had a nice lunch at Te Anau and took 100's of photos of the lake there. Beautiful. After lunch we drove to Milford sound. The road was very exciting, it twisted and turned all through the mountains and forest. Our guide Hamish has driven the road many times and we were able to sit back and enjoy it all.The best bit was when we went through a tunnel 1300 metres long. It went under the mountain! As we came down the other we could see Milford sound and Mitre peak.

We got on the boat for a two hour cruise around Milford Sound, it was awesome, we were the only ones on the boat and we had a lot of free tea and coffee. The cruise was fantastic for making photos, we must of taken tousands of photos. Everyone like the cruise, especially when we could see the seals playing in the water. Some of them even jumped out of the water for us. Very cool.

We were tired as we drove home. We stopped at Te Anau for dinner, some of us went to Subway and the others went to a cute Italian retraunt where they had really yummy pizza. The rest of the drove home most people slept, and some people listened as Hamish, Waleed and Susan played word games. Hamish won, but he has been speaking English for a very long time!

After two days on the bus we had a day to do exciting activities around Queenstown. It was cold and wet but five people went jet boating. They had a great time. The jet boat was very fast and they did lots of 360 degree turns. The photos looked very exciting.

Two girls went to the spa for a special beauty treatment. They looked wonderful when we saw them again later. We weren't so lucky with skydiving and hangliding, but two people went on the big swing. So scary but the photos looked wonderful. Jill and Yuko were very brave.

Lunch was a big surprise, it was Kunikos birthday, and Hamish brought her a birthday cake with candles. We all sung happy birthday and had chocolate cake. Everyone was very happy.

After this we all went on the bus to go and watch Jean-Marc go bungy jumping. We all watched some people jump off the bungy bridge, then Kuniko decided she would jump too. Very exciting!

Jean-Marc jumped first, and we all cheered him on as he jumped off the bridge. It was a great jump, very beautiful, like a swan. Kuniko was like stone when she jumped off. Very funny, we all laughed alot.

In the evening we all watched each others DVDs from the activities. The Jet boat DVD was very good, so was the Big swing. It was fun to see everyone having a good time.

On Monday we left Queenstown. First we visited Arrowtown, which was very cute. We had a nice hot coffee here and played with some snow. It wasnt snowing but we found some on a car that went past. We drove to Wanaka and visited puzzling world. We had funny making photos outside, and all laughed at the illusions in the illusion room.

After we left Wanaka we drove towards Christchurch. We got to the Lindis pass but the road was closed because of too much snow! There was a long line of cars waiting for the road to open again, but we turned around and drove towards the coast and back up to Christchurch. We drove through Ranfurly and there was alot of snow on the ground. We drove through two snow storms, then Hamish stopped the bus so the Saudi boys could build their first ever snow man. It was so cold outside. On the bus it was nice and warm and we all took turns to sing songs from our country. We also played a good travelling game called I Spy.
We reached a town on the coast called Palmerston then drove north. Just north of Oamaru there was some surface flooding and we drove through some water. It certainly was a dark and stormy night. We arrived back in Christchurch at 9.30, not too late.
It was very sad saying good bye to everyone. It was a fantastic trip and we all have a lot of new friends and memories we will never forget.

Thank you everyone!!

Dolphins at Akaroa

Saturday was pretty wet and wild, but we were lucky with our trip to Kaikoura. We left the rain of Christchurch behind and drove over the port hills. At the Hilltop we stoopped for a spectacular view of.............clouds. We were high up in the clouds and couldnt quite see Akaroa through the mist. As we drove down out of the clouds the weather cleared up a lot and by the time we reached Akaroa it was still cool and cloudy, but there was no rain.

We arrived at the wharf 10 minutes before our harbour cruise left - perfect timing! (Thanks Hamish, great driving) A lot of the students came to Akaroa especially to see Dolphins, and we were all hopeful as we boarded the boat. Andy has done six tours with Hello New Zealand, and really wanted to see dolphins, as he had missed out on seeing Whales in kaikoura. Andy wasn't disappointed, we saw the Hectors Dolphin on the cruise. They are very small (1.3 metres) and very playful. They came close to the boat and swam along side us.

Seeing the dolphins was a definite highlight, but was also saw alot of other wildlife on the tour as well. We saw a lot of seabirds, seals, and even a penguin swimming! It was coold and the wind was blowing alot, but the animals didnt mind at all, they are used to living in the wild.

After the cruise we had plenty of spare time for lunch and to explore around Akaroa. Akaroa is very small, but very beautiful. It is right on the edge of the sea and all the cafes and shops face out onto the sea. Very romantic! It is also famous for its seafood, and has one of the most famous fish and chip shops in New Zealand. This was where most people chose to have their lunch. I had a big piece of fish, ahot dog and some chips. The chips were very very good, and the fish was fresh straight from the sea. I ate too much and couldn't finish my hotdog.

The weather after the cruise turned bad, and it started to rain alot. We had a nice long lunch and stayed dry in all the interesting art shops. Then we drove back to Christchurch, but on the way back we made one more stop at the cheese factory.
Most people hadn't seen cheese being made before, and the video they showed about it was very interesting. They were just finishing making cheese for the day so we watched the workers in the factory cleaning up. And then a brought a lot of cheese to take home for my dinner!!!

This week we are getting ready for our Mt Cook and Tekapo trip. Can't wait to see the mountains again :)

Chocolate Penguins

The nights are cool, but we are still having beautiful sunny days -perfect for touring!

I have always associated Dunedin with Speights, Jeff Wilson and drunken students, but really it is so much more as we discovered on our tour there.

The first stop was the Cadburys Chocolate factory. This is always popular with the women on the tour,and the ladies from Thailand and Korea were excited as we arrived. We also had four me from Saudi Arabia with us and they were just as excited to visit the Chocolate factory.

Everybody enjoyed the tour very much and we all came out of the shop with lots of chocolate treats.

Baldwin street is the steepest street in the world, and this was next stop on our itinerary It was a hard walk to the top but it was worth it, we got some very nice photos.

After a quick lunch we left Dunedin and went to the peninsula to see some of Otagos famous wildlife. We were visiting the Yellow-eyed penguin colony but as we were a little early we had time to go to the end of the peninsula to see the Albatross. We could see many flying in, it was amazing.

We only saw three penguins but they were very cute. By the time we finished it was getting a bit cold and dark so we went back to Dunedin for a well deserved hot meal and cup of tea.

On Sunday some of us went out to see Larnach castle, while the rest of us went to tunnel beach. Tunnel beach is my favourite place to visit in Dunedin. It is little beach that you have to walk 30 minutes to get to, then go down a short tunnel. Its very private, and very beautiful. Well worth the visit.

All in all it was a very good trip. We were very tired when we got back to Christchurch, it was very hard to get up on Monday morning.

Next week, dolphins at Akaroa!

Kaikoura

On the weekend we had a very nice tour to Hanmer and Kaikoura. It was a small group but a good mixture of students. We had a Mother and daughter from Malaysia, a Brazillian,a Thai girl, a Swiss student, and Kazuyoshi from Japan.

Kazuyoshi was very interesting. he was 71 years old and retired. He has come to New Zeland to improve his english. We spoke alot during our two days awa, to help his conversational english, but I think I learnt more from him than he learnt from me. Kazuyoshi particully enjoyed sitting on the beach at Kaikoura and the smell of the sea. Very different from Tokyo!!

The first day we went Hanmer where most people went swimming in the hot springs. Virginia and Vivian are from Malaysia and have lived in New Zealand for five years. They decided to go Horse trekking instead of the hot springs.
The ride to the horse trekking farm was very exciting, very bumpy ride in the van and we had to drive through the river several times. It was a wild and exciting place to be. The horse trek farm was surrounded by beautiful hills and forest. It was more beautiful than I could of imagined. Virginia and Vivian went horse trekking for an hour, and you should of seen their faces when they came back, so happy, both of them couldn't stop smiling.
Virginia had ridden a horse before but it was the first time for Vivian. She said she wasn't scared at all and definitely do it again.

Sivana and Julia goto school together at Languages International. Julia has only been in New Zealand for four days and she was very enthusiastic about seeing some New Zealand scenery. Both her and Sivana loved the Lord Of The Rings films, and this was one of the reasons they chose to come to New Zealand. They were very happy to see amazing mountain scenery from Hanmer to Kaikoura, but they both agreed the highlight was going Whalewatching on Sunday, when they saw two whales up close. Amazing!!

Pinttira has been on 3 tours with me know, she is enjoying seeing New Zealand and travelling with us very much. For her seeing the Dolphins was the highlight. She was a little sick on the boat but she still managed to take many photos of the dolphins. I know she had a good time because she said she would be joining us on the Wine tour this weekend!

This week I'm off to see penguins in Dunedin, but thats a story for next week. See you then!